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Articles by Michael DeForge
All The Cameras In My Room
We are being watched. In his new collection of short stories, Michael Deforge takes this for granted. We are being watched in secret, surveilled, monetized, and viewed in public as well, all of us being a performer of some sort. The stories in All The Cameras In My Room work through many iterations of being seen, and many different responses. Are we aware that we're being watched? Do we resent being watched? Do we enjoy it? Is it scary? Exciting? Erotic?
All the Cameras in My Room
. Apr. 2026. 200p. ISBN 9781770468191. $30. FICTION COPY ISBN This latest collection of stories from DeForge ( Holy Lacrimony) serves as a brilliant showcase for his uncanny ability to disassemble and rewrite the grammar of comics. In “Figure Skating,” DeForge’s signature distorted figures and expressive page design imbue the story of a celebrity skater whose near-impossible athletic prowess becomes a catalyst for mass spectacle with unsettlingly apocalyptic intensity.
12 Canadian comics to read this summer
If you enjoy getting lost in a great graphic novel, these Canadian comics might be just what you're looking for. Holy Lacrimony by Michael DeForge Holy Lacrimony is a graphic novel by Michael DeForge. (Drawn & Quarterly, Matthew James-Wilson) Jackie, a famous musician, is abducted by mysterious shape-shifting aliens who call him the "saddest person in the world." Forced to repeatedly perform his sadness for their study of human emotion, he becomes their unwilling emotional spectacle.
The Law & Order Toronto Episode About Encampments Is as Bad as You’d Expect
In June 2024, this e-mail showed up in my Inbox. “Good morning Michael, My name is [redacted] and I’m working on the new series Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent. We’re currently in pre-production on seasons 2 and 3 in Toronto. We have some scenes coming up in our first episode of the second season where we’d love to be able to use some of your “I Support My Neighbours In Tents” signs as background decor in our park set. We’d only be using them as intended and never shown in a negative light.
Holy Lacrimony - Drawn & Quarterly
The post-alien abduction trauma memoir we’ve all been waiting for “Ah, there’s that famous lip quiver!” says Jackie’s abductor and student. Jackie has been determined to be the “saddest living person in the entire world” by a mysterious team of alien abductors. His earthly musical celebrity is nothing compared to his emotional superstar status in the eyes of these curious and peculiar shape-shifters.
BOMB Magazine | A Coming of Age
Manon Debaye is a French illustrator and cartoonist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Zadig, and Society. The Cliff, her first graphic novel, was published in 2023 by Drawn & Quarterly and won the 2023 Philippe Druillet Prize at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.
Identity Bingo! - Lux Magazine
It’s a brightly colored, well-designed time for Asian-American cookbooks. I was at a bookshop in Manhattan the other week and pulled eight or nine. This bumper crop includes First Generation by Frankie Gaw, The Woks of Life by the Leung family (who writes a popular blog of the same title), My Shanghai by Betty Liu, and Korean American by Eric Kim.
Thomas King, Zarqa Nawaz among 10 writers longlisted for $25K Leacock Medal for Canadian humour writing
Books The prize is named in honour of Ontario writer Stephen Leacock, a humorist and popular author in the first half of the 20th century. The shortlist will be announced on Aug. 1, while the winner will be revealed on Sept. 16. CBC Books · Posted: Jun 01, 2023 7:10 AM EDT | Last Updated: 38 minutes ago Thomas King and Zarqa Nawaz are among the 10 authors longlisted for the 2023 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.
Issue: Decentering the U.S.
The question that motivates this issue is simple: how come so many of us outside the settler colony called the United States of America, are so deeply influenced by and interpret our own contexts through the political ‘software’ created by U.S.-based academics and activists? The goal here is less to disqualify this U.S. political framework, than to demonstrate that the successful ways through which it analyzes its own context may not be as useful when analyzing other situations.
Birds of Maine - The Comics Journal
In a conversation last year, Michael DeForge dismissed past attempts to sell one of his works as an “adult picture book” - terminology like that certainly does comics no good. It also brings up questions such as, “what’s so good about something being adult?” Serious political pundits in my home country of the UK keep saying that “the adults are back in the room,” meaning the return of people who put a ‘trustworthy’ private school face to inhumane politics.
Review | Four new graphic novels: from the mind-blowing to the exciting to downright unnerving
Acting Class By Nick Drnaso Drawn & Quarterly, 248 pages, $34.95 A new book by award-winning graphic novelist Nick Drnaso should be treated as a special event. His last, “Sabrina,” was one of the most impactful books of 2018, for example. Drnaso’s work stands out from the crowd. “Acting Class” is his third, and just as subtly mind-blowing as the others.
Review | Four new graphic novels: from the mind-blowing to the exciting to downright unnerving
Acting Class By Nick Drnaso Drawn & Quarterly, 248 pages, $34.95 A new book by award-winning graphic novelist Nick Drnaso should be treated as a special event. His last, “Sabrina,” was one of the most impactful books of 2018, for example. Drnaso’s work stands out from the crowd. “Acting Class” is his third, and just as subtly mind-blowing as the others.
The Right to Pee Everywhere
There is a limit to our public lives, a mental radius we each keep but rarely discuss: Where’s the bathroom? The journalist Lezlie Lowe uses the phrase “bladder leash” to describe how far we can venture safely knowing we’ll be able to find a bathroom if we need one. Our freedom to move, organize, and protest, and at the most basic level, live comfortably, is all tied to bathroom access. And yet, outside of disability and homeless advocacy, few of us think about where to go until it’s an emergency.
32 great Canadian titles to read in spring 2021
The CBC Books spring reading list is here! Enjoy one of these great books as the weather heats up! The CBC Books spring reading list is here! Enjoy one of these great Canadian books as the weather heats up! Nishga by Jordan Abel Nishga is a book by Jordan Abel. (McClelland & Stewart, Frank Gunn/Canadian Press) Nishga is a memoir by Griffin Poetry Prize winner Jordan Abel.
The most exciting Canadian books coming out in spring 2021
Check out all the amazing Canadian books arriving in the first half of 2021! Canadian fiction Return of the Trickster is a novel by Eden Robinson. (Knopf Canada, Red Works Photography) Our top pick: Return of the Trickster by Eden Robinson See the rest of the Canadian fiction list Return of the Trickster is the third book in celebrated writer Eden Robinson's Trickster trilogy, after Son of a Tricksterand Trickster Drift.
The best new graphic novels including ‘a colourful assault on the brain that’s worth every minute you invest in it.’ Find out what it is
By Mike DonachieSpecial to the Star Thu., May 6, 2021timer3 min. read Heaven No Hell By Michael DeForge Drawn & Quarterly, 228 pages, $24.95 It’s hard to keep up with Michael DeForge, who has produced 11 books in the last 10 years, but it’s worth the trouble. He’s a master of weird comics with interesting messages. This time, we have short stories presented, as is customary with DeForge and Drawn & Quarterly, in a colourful, hardcover assault on the brain that’s worth every minute you invest in it.
“Don’t Overthink It!”: Walter Scott & Michael DeForge, Chatting Online
What follows is a conversation between Walter Scott and Michael DeForge, two of the most notable figures in Canada-based alternative comics. Both have had recent books released by the venerable Montreal publisher Drawn and Quarterly: Scott's Wendy, Master of Art, a satirical dramedy of arts education; and DeForge's Heaven No Hell, a new collection of short works.
Michael DeForge | Heaven No Hell | book review
With its title, Michael DeForge’s Heaven No Hell promises 200+ pages of paradise. Though the comics contained within its beautifully bound and designed hardcover volume indeed exhibit his artistic growth over the past ten years of his career, it’s immediately apparent that artistic evolution alone cannot explain what is found within. With Heaven No Hell, DeForge relishes in exposing his prowess as an intelligent designer.
Michael DeForge and Walter Scott among finalists for 2021 Doug Wright Awards for Canadian comics
Michael DeForge and Walter Scott are two of the writers nominated for the 2021 Doug Wright Awards. (Matthew James-Wilson, CBC) Michael DeForge and Walter Scott are among the finalists for 2021 Doug Wright Awards for Canadian comics. The Doug Wright Awards annually celebrate the best in Canadian comics. The awards are named after the late Ontario-based cartoonist Douglas Austin Wright. Wright wrote the weekly comic strip Doug Wright's Familywhich ran from 1949 to 1980.
Roleplay - Believer Magazine
From Heaven No Hell, copyright Michael DeForge, courtesy Drawn & Quarterly. contributor MD contributor Michael DeForge lives in Toronto, Ontario. His comics and illustrations have been featured in Jacobin, The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Walrus and Maisonneuve Magazine. He worked as a designer on Adventure Time for six seasons. His published books include Very Casual, A Body Beneath, Ant Colony, First Year Healthy, Dressing, Big Kids, Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero and A Western World.
The Bored Boyfriend
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Walton Ford by Andrés Reséndez - BOMB Magazine
Euphrates, 2020, watercolor, gouache, and ink on paper, 60 × 119.5 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian Gallery. Photo by Tom Powel. This interview is part of Theory + Practice, a series exploring the intersection of culture and social justice, and is made possible, in part, with support from the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. The invitation from BOMB Magazine came out of the blue. Their editor Benjamin Samuel wanted me—a garden-variety historian—to interview the painter Walton Ford.
22 Canadian comics to watch for in spring 2021
If you love comics, check out these Canadian books coming out in the first half of 2021. If you love comics, check out these Canadian books coming out in the first half of 2021. Afterlift by Jason Loo & Chip Zdarsky Afterlift is a comic by Chip Zdarsky (bottom right) and Jason Loo (top right). (Dark Horse Comics) Afterlift is a series from Canadian creators Jason Loo and Chip Zdarsky.
Lights, Camera, Direct Action
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Three Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell - BOMB Magazine
Boyfriend #19 / The White Boy with Dreadlocks There are periods of my life that roll through me hazily. Not like an apparition, more like that moment a cartoon villain gets hit in the head with, say, an anvil or whatever, and all he sees is stars—my life was all flashbacks that never materialized. I woke up to a spider crawling on the floor and I was reminded of this white boy I dated a while ago with these long-ass dreadlocks.
BOMB Magazine | Danielle Evans
Jamel Brinkley Hey, Danielle. Danielle Evans Hello! Where are you these days? JB I’m in Oakland—moving soon, but still in Oakland. Where are you? DE I’m in Baltimore. JB What’s your routine been—if you have one—during quarantine? DE I was supposed to be writing and wrapping up the copy edits on The Office of Historical Corrections. Starting in March, my plan was to hibernate in my apartment for a few months—which turned into everybody’s plan.
Sundown at the Eternal Staircase by GennaRose Nethercott - BOMB Magazine
Do not enter the Eternal Staircase after 8 PM. No outside food or drink is permitted within the Eternal Staircase. Black-soled sneakers, high-heeled shoes, and flip-flops are prohibited inside the Eternal Staircase. No dogs. (Yes, we used to allow dogs. Too many dogs shit in the Eternal Staircase.) If you feel lightheaded within the Eternal Staircase, alert a staff member immediately.
Guadalupe Maravilla by Janine Antoni - BOMB Magazine
Installation view of Disease Thrower at the Institute for Contemporary Art, VCU, Richmond, Virginia, 2019–20. Images courtesy of the artist and P·P·O·W, New York. Sculptor, performer, and sound healer Guadalupe Maravilla fled the civil war in El Salvador as a child, arriving in the United States after an arduous journey on land.
BOMB Magazine | Cookbooklets
In his introduction to BOMB’s oral history with Dindga McCannon, Philip Glahn writes, “McCannon’s practice spans several decades and struggles—some more personal, others more public, all of them equally political—as well as a multiplicity of materials and methods, all born of specific forms of necessity and utility.” McCannon and her housemate, the chef LeonRaymond Mitchell, encouraged by their dinner guests, self-published a cookbook of the recipes they serve to friends at their home.
BOMB Magazine | Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
Dec 17, 2020 There have been plenty of things to cry about in 2020, but I never thought a ten-page conversation between an ice cube and an ice cube tray would be one of them. And yet there I was, tears blurring my vision as I read Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s latest book, The Freezer Door (2020). “Tell me you love me, says the ice cube.
The best Canadian comics of 2020
Here are CBC Books's picks for top Canadian comics of the year. Constantly by GG Constantly is a comic by GG. (Koyama Press) Constantly explores the debilitating impact of anxiety on the every day, examining how it stretches and paralyzes daily tasks and decisions. The graphic novel is a follow-up to GG's Doug Wright Award-nominated debut I'm Not Here. What makes Doug Wright Award-nominated cartoonist GG cry? GG is a cartoonist based in Alberta. CBC Books named GG a writer to watch in 2018.
Black Unity Trio’s Al-Fatihah by Matthew Rivera - BOMB Magazine
(Gotta Groove Records, 2020) Reissued for the first time after fifty years, the Black Unity Trio’s rare and explosive free jazz album Al-Fatihah still resonates with the sounds of solidarity amid a scene of intense political struggle. From the basement of Cleveland’s Cosmic Music, drummer Hasan Shahid, alto saxophonist Yusuf Mumin, and cellist Abdul Wadud rehearsed four hours a day for six months, hashing out a musical response to the uprisings around them.
Coronavirus Update: Between 3,227 and 3,883 Canadians could die of COVID-19 by May 5, new data shows
Book Giveaway: “Familiar Face” by Michael DeForge
Toronto-based artist Michael DeForge’s new book Familiar Face offers a vibrant critique of the absurd bureaucracy of everyday life. Questioning where true connection can be found in a modern society that is constantly in flux, the story is set in a surreal dystopia where citizens and infrastructures undergo incessant system updates. These changes can alter a commuter’s route from one day to the next or even affect how a person looks.
Long Weekend
By Michael DeForge March 4, 2020 Comics Michael DeForge’s new book Familiar Face imagines a society in which the acceleration of capitalism has reached a feverish peak. In the name of optimization, the world is constantly reshaping itself. Citizens wake each morning in unfamiliar bodies, their features wholly transformed; the map shuffles weekly, sometimes even daily, resulting in endless cul-de-sacs and unexpected dead ends.
INDIE VIEW: 'Familiar Face' is a warped kaleidoscopic mirror to our own reality
Familiar Face By Michael DeForge Drawn and Quarterly “The only constant is change.” Heraclitus of Ephesus said that. I looked it up. Actually, I’m not quite clear that he said those exact words. I’m not sure that that’s not just a paraphrase of his actual sentence. But you get the idea.
REVIEW: Twinning is bad luck in STUNT
Stunt By Michael DeForge Koyama Press What would it be like to live in the shoes of a celebrity? Would it be a dream come true or would it become a nightmare of sorts? In Michael DeForge’s Stunt, a stuntman has a deathwish, and he finds his soulmate in the man for whom he doubles. A stuntman tries many ways to commit suicide but is unsuccessful.
Graphic Novella 'Stunt' Seeks Escape from Perpetual Entrapment
Stunt Michael DeForge Koyama Press Sep 2019 Other Michael DeForge's new graphic novella (Stunt is too short to call a novel) is a compelling combination of excess and restraint. Except for the red letters snaking cage-like around the main character in the cover image, DeForge limits his palette to blue and white on black backgrounds.
Alootook Ipellie, Fiona Smyth are the 2019 inductees to Canadian cartooning hall of fame
Books Alooktook Ipellie is an Inuit artist celebrated for his satirical comics on Inuit life in Canada and Fiona Smyth is a Toronto creator known for her groundbreaking comics on female sexuality. The nominees for the 2019 Doug Wright Awards for Canadian cartooning were also revealed Jane van Koeverden · Posted: Apr 24, 2019 1:04 PM ET | Last Updated: April 24 Alootook Ipellie, Fiona Smyth are the 2019 inductees to the Giants of the North hall of fame for Canadian cartoonists.
"Leaving Richard's Valley" by Artist Michael DeForge
Our friends over at Drawn & Quarterly have hooked us up with a couple copies of Toronto-based artist Michael DeForge’s new book Leaving Richard’s Valley! This bizarre hero’s quest follows a ragtag group of exiles as they make their way from the only home they’ve ever known. The hardcover features 480 pages of absurd yet insightful explorations of city life and how communities are made.
Michael DeForge in Vancouver, BC!
Read more about Michael DeForge Michael DeForge in Vancouver, BC! Michael DeForge On Tour (Past Event) Michael DeForge at Comic Arts LA (Past Event) Michael DeForge in conversation with Kean Soo (Past Event) D+Q at SPX 2017 (Past Event) Michael DeForge launches Sticks Angelica at Lucky's Books Sorry, there is currently no press for this author. Please check back soon!
Michael DeForge On Tour
Read more about Michael DeForge Michael DeForge On Tour (Past Event) Michael DeForge in Vancouver, BC! (Past Event) Michael DeForge at Comic Arts LA (Past Event) Michael DeForge in conversation with Kean Soo (Past Event) D+Q at SPX 2017 (Past Event) Michael DeForge launches Sticks Angelica at Lucky's Books Sorry, there is currently no press for this author. Please check back soon!
Berlin by Jason Lutes is a masterpiece of its medium
Dhaliwal, who’s from Brampton and now works for Disney TV Animation in Los Angeles, has collected her biweekly Instagram comic and some new material into a graphic novel, where the short cartoons blend into the story of a community trying to rebuild, united by a flag depicting “Beyonce’s Thighs.” Imagine a world peopled only by women, due to a decline in male births, then depopulated even more by natural disasters, and you have Woman World. It shouldn’t be funny, but it is.
The Sci-Fi Strangeness (And Canadian Sensuality) Of Cartoonist Michael DeForge
The Sci-Fi Strangeness (And Canadian Sensuality) Of Cartoonist Michael DeForge Michael DeForge isn't satisfied with his work unless he's in over his head — and the 29-year-old Canadian cartoonist has become one of the comic-book industry's most exciting, unpredictable talents because of this eagerness to push himself outside of his comfort zone. "I need to feel challenged by what I'm working on," DeForge told me in an e-mail conversation.
Enter A Strange State Of Nature With Michael DeForge’s ‘Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero’
Who is Sticks Angelica? According to no less an authority than Stick Angelica herself, she is a 49-year-old former Olympian, poet, scholar, sculptor, minister, activist, and all-around hyphenate celebrity who has left the public eye after a scandal involving her politician father, and moved into the Monterey National Park in Ontario. She is also the title character of Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero, a comic strip-turned-graphic novel by Michael DeForge.
A Very Sticks Angelica Christmas
I invited Ryan Carbon to my birthday party. I wasn't friends with Ryan. He was very stupid, but I knew he had a crush on me, so I felt bad for him.
The 13 Best Webcomics of 2013
Our goal in choosing the “best” webcomics this year was to highlight comics with wit and originality. From the playground politics of young superheroes to the crazy antics of a shapeshifting squire, these diverse comics combine genius storytelling with uniquely-imagined artwork. Each webcomic listed impressed us with its creative depth, and we know they’ll bring you hours of entertainment.
Will Eisners „Ich bin Fagin“: Fagin, der Jude
Ebony White war ein ähnlich böses Klischee wie Fagin, welches Eisner später nach und nach abschwächte, ehe er die Figur ganz ausmusterte. Es sei ihm im Krieg bewusst geworden, so Eisner in seiner Einleitung zu „Fagin the Jew“, welche Folgen derartige Darstellungen haben können, und dies habe ihn schließlich auch auf Fagin aufmerksam gemacht. Ist diese Voraussetzung erfüllt, kommt es auf die Vermittlung des Stoffes an: Eine German Graphic Novel soll weder Pop noch Avantgarde sein, sondern seriös.
Big Kids | Quill And Quire
While Michael DeForge’s early work set his freakish, often hilarious tales of growing up and discovering a sense of self in bizarre alternate realities, Big Kids features the Toronto-based comics artist’s closest approximation of the real world yet, providing a solid central reference point against which his sharp social commentary is set in stark relief.
How Glasses Can Change Children’s Lives
I hope that Pamela Gallin’s May 15 Op-Ed essay, “Kids Who Can’t See Can’t Learn,” will make parents take their kids to get their eyes checked. I’m a mother of three with access to top pediatricians and a network of neurotic moms, yet I was never advised to get my children’s eyes checked. Last summer I took my 4-year-old to an optometrist with an air of confidence that I was just being overprotective. Much to my sickening surprise, he could barely see, as it turns out.
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